During my four nights stay in the Premier Inn at Gargrave I decided to make a couple of films in the Yorkshire Dales. I had, of course, already made four films in the area two years earlier, but there was still plenty more places in the Dales to film. I looked at making one film in Nidderdale, an area I had overlooked until now, possibly as it’s not included in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, but after doing some research I knew it would be a lovely place to film. I also discovered that, being of fan of the cult 70’s TV series “Blake’s 7”, a couple of episodes were shot on location in Nidderdale, and so I wanted to feature some of those locations, i.e. Gouthwaite Reservoir and How Stean Gorge.

I was still full of cold on Tuesday 1st November 2016, but I wasn’t prepared to spend my days in Gargrave just resting inside the Premier Inn drinking Lemsips, so I made my way to Brimham Rocks to begin shooting my Nidderdale film. I captured lots of scenes of all the various rocks here then drove on to Pateley Bridge. I parked in a small car park just off the High Street and filmed a few shots of the recreation ground, Bewerley Park and then spent most of my time in Pateley Bridge filming shots around the High Street. From here I drove on further up Nidderdale to park at a small parking area opposite Gouthwaite Reservoir. This lake was used in a couple of scenes in “Blake’s 7” in the episode “City at the Edge of the World”. There is a viewing platform beside the road, from where I was able to shot scenes of the lake, but there are no footpaths to or beside the lake itself, so this was as close as I could get.

I drove on up to the village of Ramsgill just beyond Gouthwaite Reservoir to take a few shots before moving on to Lofthouse. I didn’t film the village itself, but I took some panoramic shots of Nidderdale from here. The next place I wanted to shoot was nearby How Stean Gorge, which in “Blake’s 7” was used as a location in the episode “Powerplay”. Parking up here I walked into the café where I bought a ticket for entry into How Stean Gorge. I was advised to wear a hard hat, which I collected as I entered the gorge, and a torch would be needed as there are a couple of caves. It was an interesting shoot here as I needed to be very careful due to slippery rocks and low overhanging crags, so I soon discovered why the hard hat was a necessity! I entered one of the caves, but I found it too claustrophobic to walk all the way through, so I turned back. I managed to capture a couple of shots inside though. The final location of the day was at Middlesmoor. As with Lofthouse I didn’t film the village, but took some long shots of Nidderdale from here as the views were just amazing.

Post-production on “Natural Beauty of Nidderdale” commenced at the beginning of February 2017. For me my music is always the most important factor in my videos, but for this one I was particularly keen to come up with a strong soundtrack, something that wasn’t just an “it’ll do” theme. After several ideas and recording a few demos I eventually composed what I think is a really catchy and beautiful theme. I used an acoustic guitar sound on my keyboard for the rhythm and counter melody, VP soft strings for some of the accompaniment, and a variation of woodwind, trumpet and grand piano sounds for the main melody.